Around February 2011, the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) stopped assigning IPv4 addresses, which are almost exhausted. However, as ubiquitous networks are getting increasingly popular, demands for IP addresses are being sharply increased. Thus, countries including Korea are promoting transitioning to IPv6 networks.
Also, developments in technology and international standardization have been actively made for the ubiquitous networks including future networks (FN), sensor networks (SN), and body area networks (BAN), which are considered as high-tech industry fields.
Computing devices have been advanced to be capable of recognizing their surroundings. Especially, mobile computing devices have become multifunctional devices having various sensors, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, and wired/wireless network card equipment.
Such devices make it possible to acquire location of a person or an object, and location-based services are getting more attention as they can create various added values using the location information.
The goal is integrating heterogeneous networks to establish a ubiquitous network environment that can provide more extensive services, and providing interworking between various wireless networking technologies to provide all IP-based services. Thus, studies on technologies for heterogeneous network interworking and expanding service ranges have been actively made.
Design objectives of future networks include providing network scalability. Wireless multi-hop networks having Internet connectivity for expanded networking coverage are being developed.
The larger the wireless multi-hop network is, the better the performance of routing methods using location information is, compared with the conventional topology-based ad hoc routing protocols.
However, routing methods using location information need additional processes, such as using location information providing services, for acquiring and maintaining location information and have additional overheads because transmitted packets should always include location information therein.
In order to solve those problems with the location-based routing methods, a new address system with physical location information included in the node address is desired. Furthermore, location-based routing methods using the new location-based address system can be expected to be adopted as a new routing approach in other various network environments as well as the wireless multi-hop networks due to some advantages including network scalability, such as reduced loads in router and optimized routing paths.
Furthermore, the location-based address system makes it possible to provide services without any additional process for acquiring location information. By way of example, the conventional IP address system incurs additional overheads to include location information in order to represent an area for sensing data, or provide a location-based service using geocasting that transmits a packet to a group of nodes in a specific area.
If it is possible to express a data sensing area or a geocasting area in an address system including physical location information, the location-based services can be provided with simpler procedures thanks to the uniform expression of location information.
However, the conventional IPv6 address system does not take into account a geographical concept, and has problems like the need of additional processes and unnecessary overheads for acquiring location information.
Therefore, there is a need for a geographical address system compatible with the IPv6 address system, and routing methods using the geographical address system, which will allow a wide variety of location-based services that require location information of things to be applied to ubiquitous networks so that various application services can be provided.
In this regard, Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2009-0129573 (entitled “Method and Apparatus for Multihop Routing Considering Link Lifetime By Node Movement”) describes that overall routing performance is enhanced by minimizing link disconnection in a mobile ad hoc network.
And U.S. Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2007/0198702 (entitled “Traffic Routing Based on Geophysical Location”) describes that a network traffic routing event occurs on multiple network devices dispersed over a specific geographical area, that a geographical perimeter for the network traffic routing event is determined, that a subset of network devices within the geographical perimeter is identified, and that a communication is sent to the network devices based on the network traffic routing event.